Game over for middle-school sports in Albuquerque

Albuquerque Public Schools was set to drop its middle-school sports program for the coming school year because of anticipated cuts linked to a state budget crisis.(Photo: Purestock, Getty Images/Purestock)

ALBUQUERQUE — Athletics are losing out in the competition for limited dollars as one of the nation’s largest school districts prepares for funding cuts in cash-strapped New Mexico.

Albuquerque Public Schools was set to drop its middle-school sports program for the coming school year because of anticipated cuts linked to a state budget crisis.

Parents reacted with dismay as 3,400 students are left without a traditional training ground for high school athletics. Some worry that low-income families in particular may be hard-pressed to find sports teams and facilities outside public school, while others say the opportunity to play sports is critical for students at such a formative age.

Vanessa Petty, president of the parents association at Lyndon B. Johnson Middle School in Albuquerque, said her daughter was looking forward to playing volleyball next year.

“Their first introduction to sports for a majority of children is middle school,” Petty said. “It’s huge not just for their personal health but more for social aspects. They learn teamwork, they learn respect for others.”

Under the athletic cuts, teachers would lose coaching stipends and short-term coaching contracts would go away. Eliminating intermural middle-school volleyball, basketball, and track and field will save $580,000 and help avoid classroom cuts, district spokeswoman Monica Armenta said.

That is a small fraction of the $26 million in reductions that the district says may be needed as the state wrestles with a downturn in tax income linked to oil prices and a sluggish economy with high unemployment.

Public schools in New Mexico rely on state government for nearly all of their operating budgets.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and the Democratic-led Legislature are in a standoff over how to fill a $156 million budget shortfall and protect the state’s credit rating. Martinez vetoed tax increases that she called reckless and plans to call lawmakers back to the Capitol to renegotiate.

Lawmakers are preparing to sue the governor to block vetoes that would defund all state universities, the Legislature and other core government services.

Albuquerque Public Schools has translated the state budget gap into a possible 2 percent reduction in its funds come fall. The state already cut spending on public schools in October by more than 2 percent, and more recently swept funding from school district reserves to plug this year’s deficit.

The governor’s office said cutting athletics showed “distorted” priorities, pointing to the district’s spending on lobbyists and reluctance to use its savings — estimated at $82 million by state education officials.

“This is a bad decision,” Michael Lonergan, a spokesman for Martinez, said in an email. “They are the only school district that has announced this reckless action” in New Mexico.

Athletics are an afterthought for Santa Fe Public Schools, which is considering closing two elementary schools in response to budget pressures. School superintendents across the state have warned that further state funding cuts would inflate class sizes and threaten academic standards.

The district has come under political fire in recent years for stockpiling operating reserves and costly administrative dismissals and settlements.

Petty and others are questioning whether the Albuquerque district has other options rather than cutting middle school sports. She pointed to a recent announcement that $12 million would be spent to improve an athletics complex at one Albuquerque high school.

“We can’t spend half a million to fund middle school sports?” she asked. “I think there could be other ways.”